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Ptolemaic Egyptians/History
Possibly the oldest known surviving civilisation at the onset of the 2nd century BCE, Egypt was an ancient land which had been ruled by foreigners for almost two hundred years, and was acknowledged by the Greeks (who were proud of their being civilised) as the source of all culture in the eastern Mediterranean, and with the rise of the Ptolemaic pharaohs, was destined for even greater heights. Court intrigues and competition with the growing power of Rome however proved to be one too many challenges for the Ptolemaic Egyptians and following a civil war in Rome, the last Pharaoh was forced to commit suicide, and Egypt would become a part of the Roman empire for well over six centuries. Pre-Hellenic Egypt Dynastic rule in Egypt began with the world's first imperial city of Memphis, under King Menes. This period, known as the "Archaic Period" which lasted until 2686BCE, saw the Egyptian civilisation began to take root, with the development and refinement of Egyptian culture. It also saw the conquest of the Sinai, and continuing solidification of central rule to keep the Kingdoms of Lower Egypt, whose patron deity Horus, and Upper Egypt, whose patron deity was Seth, intact. Military expeditions were also sent to Nubia and Libya to extend Egypt's power and influence. The union of Upper and Lower Egypt was proven to have been fully consolidated with the invasion of the Hyskos — the pharaoh Ahmosis did not merely manage to retake all Egyptian territories held by the Hyksos, but even managed to expand Egyptian influence further into the Levant. However, Egypt was fated to be conquered by foreign peoples again once more. During the so-called the "Late Period" which lasted from 1085–322BCE, the Nubians conquered Egypt, only to be overthrown by the Assyrians with the help of resentful Egyptians. The Assyrian war with the Persians forced them to withdraw and once again Egypt was ruled by an Egyptian when Psammethchus I declared himself Pharaoh. Egyptian freedom proved short-lived, however. The Persian Achaemenids succeeded in wresting control of Egypt in 525BCE, and they would rule for almost two more centuries. The Persians had no interest in reliving ancient Egypt's past or ruling as Pharaohs as the past invaders had, and, despite local rebellions, ruled the Egyptian as a subject people of the Persian Empire. The Greek Gods Persian rule in Egypt was finally ended when Alexander the Great defeated the them in the Battle of Issus (in present day Turkey) in 333BCE. When he entered into Egypt the next year, the Egyptians welcomed him as their liberator and accepted him as Pharaoh of Egypt — Alexander was aware of how the Egyptians despised foreigners, and sought to restore the trapping of Egyptian culture which were disdained by the former Persian occupiers. Alexander's greatest contribution to Egypt was establishing a new capital for Egypt called Alexandria. When Alexander died shortly after, his Empire was left to his lieutenants, of which Ptolemy became governor of Egypt. Ptolemy eventually declared his independence from the Macedonian Empire and made himself Pharaoh and established the Ptolemaic dynasty. This time saw Greek become the official language of Egypt, and an integration of Greek culture, military traditions, and technology with Egyptian traditions. The library of Alexandria was built at this time; it eventually boasted the largest collection of books in the ancient world. It was also at this time that the Rosetta stone was carved, and what would allow the language of the ancient Egyptians to be translated into modern text, as the stone contained both ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Greek. The Brotherhood Although the Ptolemaic rulers considered themselves as Pharaohs and even practised incest as a means of "preventing the royal blood from becoming corrupted by lesser mortals", they never forgot their Greek roots. There was one good reason for doing so: the Ptolemids continued to be menaced by their other cousins, especially the expansionist Seleucids who had managed to squirrel away the whole of Alexander's Middle Eastern domains for their own use. Like their native predecessors from seven centuries before, the Ptolemids were embroiled in struggles for hegemony in the Syrian desert with the Seleucids (who at the height of their power) controlled an empire stretching from the Bosporus all the way to the borders of India). The other power of concern for the Ptolemids was also old Macedon itself, and so the Egyptians interefered a lot in the Greek peninsula. Most notable of Egyptian efforts in Greece was sponsorship of the Chremonidian League headed by Athens and Sparta as a means of limiting Macedonian power. This was successful not because the Ptolemaic rulers were sufficiently gifted, but because luck favoured them in spite of their failures - the new powers of Rome and Carthage were also active in the Greek world and competition with the Greek kingdoms of Epirus and Macedon over the Adriatic, Tyrrhenian and Ionian, was coming to a head. Fall of the Gods: The Falcon and the Wolves : I came to see a king, not a line of corpses! : —Octavian, when asked if he would like to visit the tombs of the Ptolemaic emperors after visiting the tomb of Alexander the Great in Alexandria However, the reign of the Ptolemaic Pharaohs eventually began to decline as a result of internal power struggles, and the emergence of Rome as a world power. As Rome emerged triumphant east and west, and the Seleucids were slowly devoured by their own expansionist ambitions, Egypt began to appear isolated and alone in a world where the Greek kingdoms were doomed to becoming fleeting memories — and which was also being divided into east and west, with Rome ruling over Europe and the Levant, and the rising Parthians proving to be a force to be reckoned with. The last of the Ptolemies was Cleopatra VII. She was an ambitious and able ruler who wanted to preserve Egypt's independence and restore its glory. So to this end she had a son with the Roman Caesar, then later became the wife of Mark Antony who was Julius Caesar's chief lieutenant. They managed to keep Egypt independent for 10 years before the next Roman Caesar; Octavian defeated the Egyptians at the battle of Actium in 31 B.C. driving Antony and Cleopatra to suicide.